Acid attack girl defiant

An Afghan girl whose face was burned in an acid attack by suspected Taliban extremists has vowed to continue going to school, even if it puts her life in danger.

Men on motorbikes used water pistols to spray acid into the faces of Shamsia and around 12 other girls as they arrived at school in Kandahar.

Shamsia, 17, was the worst wounded in the horrific attack and had some acid enter her eyes. She was transferred to a military hospital in Kabul where she was visited yesterday by her fellow pupils.

“I will go to my school even if they kill me,” she said. “My message for the enemies is that if they do this 100 times, I am still going to continue my studies.”

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack but it bore the hallmarks of the Taliban, which banned girls from school during its hardline rule from 1996 to 2001.

President Hamid Karzai and other officials blamed the attack on the “enemies of Afghanistan” - a broad term that most often refers to the Taliban insurgents.

However a Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, said his group would “never do such a cowardly thing against girls and children”.

The insurgents have attacked and destroyed hundreds of schools across the country since they were forced from power in 2001.

This year around 115 schools have been set on fire, bombed or bulldozed in attacks education ministry spokesman Hamed Elmi blamed on “the opposition”. About 120 people in the education sector have been killed in attacks, he said.

The acid attack drew condemnation from the Afghan women’s ministry, which said yesterday “the enemies” could not stand in the way of education of women through such attacks.

“In Islam getting an education is the duty of men and women and being against this is being against religious orders,” it said.

Shamsia was equally defiant: “I’ll continue going to lessons. I’m studying to be able to build our country,” she said, her face covered in healing ointment.

Around 6.2 million children are now enrolled in school in Afghanistan. About 35 per cent of them are girls.